B. Traven Books

This is a must-read for anyone interested in the "mystery" of the identity of B. Traven and especially the meta-mystery and the history of the mystery. The book - which is print-on-demand (but is still well made) - is a collection of materials compiled together. Since the materials are poorly edited and repetitive at times, I presume they are Stone's articles for Ramparts - but the volume nowhere gives their origin. The book is a narrative derived from the last and only authorized interviews that Hal Croves gave. The content, alas, is not what one would have hoped for. As I read the book, I kept wondering why a magazine would send an interviewer who spoke no German and had no scholarly understanding of German literature to interview a German author. As a result of this, many of her questions and presuppositions were poorly informed (when I later read Jonah Raskin's book, I understood what Croves' wife meant when she said that Stone would have gotten more if she had just asked the right questions). The newer materials are similarly off-basis - rather than summarizing and addressing the scholarship in the intervening 20 years, Stone puts forth more rumors and romantic dreams. After reading the book, I wondered whether Stone - like Croves' wife - was more interested in proliferating the mysteries than in solving them.

Fascinating read. Will hold you spellbound until the very end.

Now if I could only get my hands on the doc based on this book. I know there was one made by the BBC some years back...only it is not easy to track down.

I recommend The Secret Of The Sierra Madre / The Man Who Was B. Traven written by Will Wyatt in loo of a failed BBC documentary into the life of the clandestine author of: The Death Ship, The Bridge in the Jungle, the trilogy of novels about the Mexican revolution, but best well known for the movie based on his Treasure of the Sierre Madre.

There is a history of scholastic investigation into this mysterious non-personage. Was he chased from Germany, a pamphleteering anarchist? Was he a midwestern wobbly? ...a merchant marine? ...cowboy? ...illigitemate son of an emperor? ...hunted revolutionary on the run? ...adopted indian healer? ...extended member of the first mexican family... by marraige?

He himself shunned any attention; he said all anyone needed to know about him they could glean from what he had written, that he himself was unimportant. Though those thoughts bidden by the stories he had written were only further fleshed out by Will Wyatt's investigations. Regardless of what may or may not be certain, Will Wyatt reveals a lot about the man who called himself B. Traven. And I don't think it's giving anything away to say that while you read Wyatt you believe B. Traven could be anyman or, more importantly, ...

This is certainly not my favourite book by B. Traven, and critics have often described it as "inconsistent." That said, it is still probably one of the best attacks I've ever read on corporate American culture.

It's about a U.S. oil company that's quickly expanding its drilling rights in Mexico, but is stopped short when it cannot purchase a key piece of land from a small Indian community. The rest of the novel details how the oil company tries to claim this land for itself, first by legal means and then through violence and corruption.

Thematically, this novel parallels Traven's short story "Assembly Line" -- in both narratives there is a clash of cultures between the technocratic Americans and traditional campesinos. And in both narratives, capitalism is depicted as force that promises great wealth for everyone, but at a great expense -- total dehumanization and the loss of traditional knowledge, values and customs.

Traven's sympathies are with the Mexican Indians, of course. But by no means does he portray the oil executives as "flat" or two-dimensional characters. One of the great strengths of this book, in fact, is that it shows how a wealthy oil president finds himself trapped in a cycle of overspending -- overconsumption -- and is therefore forced to pursue bigger business ventures, all in attempt to stave of insecurity and personal financial ruin.

The few inconsistencies in this novel -- which are minor and have to do with Traven's poor use of American slang -- do not detract from "The White Rose." His attacks on big business are incisive to say the least, and his description of rural Mexican life is vivid, realistic and flawless.

I read Mr. Baumann's slim volume not once, but twice. I don't agree with him at all, and neither does Karl S. Guthke, that someone else wrote all those B. Traven books. Yes, Traven must have had some help (so did Hemingway and Thomas Wolf--as did so many others) --that still does not prove that he was not the original author. The man was clearly highly intelligent as well as obviously quite articulate. All one has to do is go over some of his correspondence with various entities throughout his career. To simply say that a writer can't write in more than one style is ridiculous. Mr. Baumann's theory remains nothing but that--a theory. I get the feeling that "B. Traven" did write his books himself and that Mr. Baumann does not even come close to proving otherwise.
Now, as to who B. Traven actually was--well, that's something else
again, entirely different issue. Yes, we know he was Hal Croves and that he was also Ret Marut (among other aliases that he had in his little I.D. kit)

but no one, nobody has yet been able to figure out who Ret Marut was or where he came from, not Judy Stone, not Karl Guthke or anyone else. Yes, they have tried...and failed. Maybe one day someone will come along and offer up solid proof as to the real and true identity of this talented writer...maybe...or it could be that anyone who may have had the answer has probably by now passed on, etc. Meanwhile, we have the B. Traven books. I have already read THE COTTONPICKERS and liked it (reminded me, to some extent, of DOWN AND OUT IN PARIS AND LONDON by Goerge Orwell, as well FACTOTUM by the
great Charles Bukowski).; read TREASURE (also well done) and am in the process of reading THE DEATH SHIP...
And so, my final verdict RE: MR. TRAVEN, I PRESUME? Close, but no cigar, Mr. Baumann. Keep trying...or rather, accept the fact this is just another one of life's mysteries we'll have to live with.